Macronutrients

Origins and History

Food is the basic resource of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that allow our body to do its daily performance. Our ability to eat foods and then extract the proper nutrients is what allows us to gain both energy and the building blocks for our immune system and other bodily functions. To understand human nutrition we must begin with the basics, that is, the building blocks and the chemical structure of food. Some reeducation is useful to help realize that many of the foods that we buy in food stores, fast food chains, and in health food stores may not actually be healthy for the human body. No longer may we overlook terms such as complex carbohydrates, simple carbohydrates, processed foods, refined grains, caffeine ingestion, alcohol consumption, and refined oils..(Macronutrients) Food intake and type have a profound effect on individual health. Although the ingestion of foods may not cause any acute deleterious effects on the health for humans, the long-term effects have been clearly documented in the literature. (Macronutrients)

As we cross the line into the new millennium, physicians and other health care providers need to consider how to effect change in our patients with less emphasis on the use of synthetic drugs and other chemical concoctions. Nutritional literature supports a growing realization that food could have a significant contributory factor in many of our chronic ailments of today, including cancer, collagen vascular diseases, arthritis, and even progressive aging. Our patients are spending billions of dollars on diets like high protein, low carbohydrate, low fat, low protein, Paleolithic, blood typing, zone, starvation, food pyramid, allergic disorder, caloric restriction, and juicing diets. Unfortunately, none of these specialized protocols is universally ideal. Individualized treatment and prescription of the appropriate diet is essential for the improvement for a patient’s nutritional status. (Macronutrients)

Watch the video related to alternative medicine

Nearly half the US populations turns to complementary, alternative and integrative practices to maintain or improve their health. UCSF’s Dr. Sudha Prathikanti explores Ayurvedic medicine, ancient wisdom for modern times. Ayurvedic medicine aims to integrate and balance the body, mind, and spirit. Series: “UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public” [12/2007] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 13107]

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Macronutrients